The nation's harshest immigration law, upheld by a federal judge last week, is creating nothing short of a "humanitarian crisis" that mirrors the fear and racism felt during the Jim Crow era, opponents of the law said Thursday.

During an afternoon news conference about Alabama's immigration law, lawyers, educators and children's advocates said the effects of the law mirror the fear and racism felt during the Jim Crow era and have led to thousands of children being kept home from school, pregnant women being afraid to give birth in a hospital and families having their water supply cut off.

Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said more than 2,000 phone calls have flooded the center's hotline, established less than a week ago.

"We've heard from husbands who can't take their wives to the hospital to give birth, and from people who are so sick but are afraid to go to the hospital," she said. "Thousands of children are out of school and those who are in school are subject to horrible conditions."

In one case, she said, Hispanic children were called to the cafeteria and questioned about the legal status of their parents.

"I'm wondering when that day will come where they will be asked to wear the yellow star," Bauer said.

She said she's also heard that several cities have cut off water service to customers whose immigration status is in question. "In other words, some families may have to go without clean water and the convenience of indoor plumbing while they wait on the courts to determine what we've known all along -- this law is unconstitutional and should have never been enforced," she said.

Father Jack Kane, a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Opelika, said national immigration reform is urgent.

"What's going to happen as people leave Alabama is that they'll end up like nomads going from state to state because there is no national law," he said.

Pamela Long, associate professor of international studies at Auburn University Montgomery, said she is counseling a Hispanic family now that is considering leaving Alabama.

The family, she said, owns a small business with six employees and has three children.

"That would be disrupting the lives of three minor children, who are going to be ripped from their schools and the spiritual community," she said. "None of these children know anything about Mexico, so if they get deported to Mexico, it's going to be reverse culture shock."

To report issues with the immigration law, contact the SPLC hotline at 800-982-1620.